- Weight of multiple cases cannot mask incompetence
Once again, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has filed a reference against opposition politicians for them allegedly abusing power while in office. The reference is against Yousaf Raza Gillani for suspending the rules while Prime Minister and thus allowing Asif Zardari, then President, to pay a small amount and keep cars he had been gifted by the presidents of the UAE and Libya. A reference has been made against Mr Zardari for taking the car. The reference against Mian Nawaz Sharif is on the same grounds as well. Mr Zardari is further accused of using Omni Group money to pay for the vehicles (and Omni Group CEO Anwar Majid has thus been included in the reference). It seems that the reference is part of the set of references involving Mr Zardari, the Omni Group and money laundering, the investigations of which have involved him being arrested by NAB, and subsequently being enlarged on bail for health reasons.
NAB may have the leaders of both the PPP and the PML(N) dead to rights, but its record against these and other leaders is not encouraging. While it did obtain a conviction against Mian Nawaz over the Avenfield Flats, he too has been granted bail, and was even allowed to go abroad. The new reference may be ascribed to the PTI’s attempts to have him sent back, which have led to an extradition request by the Pakistan government being sent to the UK. The PTI government has responded to accusations that it whitewashes its own leaders (as the opposition claim it has done in the sugar and flour cases) and targets the opposition’s through such references or preceding investigations by claiming that NAB is independent and free to act accordingly.
If that is so, NAB has got to answer for the fact that its numerous failures so far mean that taxpayers’ money spent on it has been largely wasted, with the bails granted to ex-Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbassi and ex-Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, and the High Court direction to NAB not to persecute PML(N) Punjab President Rana Sanaullah, whom it is investigating for illegal assets after the Anti-Narcotics Force failed to stop him getting bail in a drugs case. The NAB can only defend itself against charges of being a political tool if it concedes monumental professional incompetence.
